General Discussion

They are left of center. They dont eat, sleep and drink politics and tune in only shortly before elections. They’re tolerant of those on the right of center, and may even have Republican friends. They can see Trump, Vance, Johnson, Bondi, etc on TV without having an aneurysym. They may even think we have immigration and crime problems. But, they are Democrats. They care about the poor, believe in social security, worry about health care, and know the rich dont pay enough in taxes. But, they dont live on X, donate to ActBlue, volunteer to work phone banks, or use their time off work going to protests. They are even-keeled, rarely get worked up, and dont make a lot of noise. But, they do vote.

And then there’s the very vocal minority. They live on a hair trigger, ready to organize in a jiffy, flooding Congressional phone lines, posting passionate videos on X, FB and BlueSky, and flying to DC to protest at the Mall or outside the Supreme Court. They are consumed with hate for Trump and reflexively take the opposite position of the Orange Man. They have no tolerance for anything less than total agreement with their stances on climate, COVID, LGBT, packing the Court, and the like. But, they are a loud lot. Easily louder than the larger, aforementioned less enganged Democratic cohort. Therefore, they have more power within the party than their size warrants.

We need voices from the larger, more representative group of Democrats, the ones more relateble and acceptable to the similar group just to the right of center. They need to put the louder and further left minority with their less appealing, political-losing ideas in their place. In other words, the Democratic Party needs to hold closer to the center rather than continuing to appease the progressive left by drifting the party their way.

There is a reason one has to “move left” to win the Democratic nomination and then ‘move to the center’ (to the right) to have any chance to win the General. How refreshing would it be to have a candidate that could win the nomination and run as the same person in the General and win!

I’ve seen Senator Fetterman interviewed a couple times lately. There’s no mistaking he’s a Democrat. But, I’ll damned if he doesnt come across as a well-reasoned and thoughtful man. And now that his brain is working right, he speaks very well. He gives the other side credit where he can while leaving no doubt he’s a Democrat. I think he is the type of person who could appeal across the aisle, and it’s going to take someone like that.

Maybe there are others like Fetterman out there. Jared Poli? Andy Beshears? Josh Shapiro? I just have concerns a Newscom, Pritzker, Ocasio-Cortez, or a Buttigieg can do it.